How is marine life affected when coastal waters become both browner and warmer? That’s what SLU researcher Magnus Huss, together with colleagues from the Department of Aquatic Resources (SLU Aqua) and researchers at Umeå Marine Sciences Centre, aims to find out in a new research project.
The project is called "Ecosystem Services in Warmer and Darker Coastal Waters" and aims to understand how browner coastal waters and a warmer climate affect ecosystem services that are important to us humans, such as fish production, recreation, and carbon storage.
The researchers will use, among other things, drone images from shallow coastal bays, combined with measurements of algal production and carbon flows, to map how key ecosystem functions vary along the Baltic Sea coast – from north to south. The work will be complemented by experiments, analyses of water samples from Sweden’s east coast, and mathematical models of food webs, i.e., who eats whom.
– By learning more about how climate change is transforming the marine environment along our coasts, we hope to contribute to solutions that preserve both fish stocks and the ocean’s ability to store carbon, as well as our opportunities for recreation, says Magnus Huss, Senior Lecturer at SLU Aqua and leader of the project.
The project is funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas and will be carried out in collaboration between the Department of Aquatic Resources (SLU Aqua) at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Umeå Marine Research Center. The project has been granted SEK 5 938 489.
Magnus Huss, Senior Lecturer, Director of Studies - postgraduate education
Department of Aquatic Resources, Institute of Coastal Research, SLU
magnus.huss@slu.se, +46 10 478 41 27